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Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Georgetown Liquor Company

A recent visit from an out of town vegan prompted a dinner out with one other vegetarian and a handful of omnivores. We had initially intended to go to Squid and Ink, but found it closed on Mondays, and modified our location to the Georgetown Liquor Company, another entirely vegetarian (and very vegan friendly) Georgetown restaurant.

In addition to being vegetarian, the Georgetown Liquor company has a couple of other perks:

1. Vintage video games and pinball2. Chips and Salsa for sale late into the night, long after the kitchen closes (10pm)

We showed up during happy hour, and had $1.50 draught beers and $2.50 well drinks.I've been here many times and have ordered all over the menu, and my usual dish tends to be the baked polenta with fennel and Gouda, which I really enjoy. But tonight I noticed something new: A vegetarian Caesar Salad. I have almost entirely missed out on the Caesar Salad craze due to the presence of anchovies and raw eggs in the dressing, but can certainly understand the (ok, perhaps slightly unsophisticated) desire to eat a salad of only romaine, croutons, creamy dressing and Parmesan.

Um, I'll just have a salad, thanks.

The salad came and blew my mind. As I've mentioned before, I tend to love a salad that I don't have to chop myself, and this didn't disappoint. It was huge. The dressing was vegan and light but also creamy, garlicky and citrusy and the salad perfectly dressed. Even after eating a giant too-good-to-be-true pile of it (I did indeed finish it, gigantic as it was), I didn't feel like I'd eaten a ridiculous amount of salad dressing.

Oh yes!

It came with strips of lightly fried and well marinated (though perhaps a bit too salty) tofu laid on top, sort of like the ever present grilled chicken breast, and was sprinkled liberally with Parmesan cheese (I think it was "real" Parmesan, but the option of substituting vegan cheese was available). It also included a ton of not-too-greasy homemade croutons made of both sourdough and marbled rye, and was garnished with two fat wedges of juicy lemon to squeeze on top.

Excellent homemade croutons and Parmasean crusted tofu

I was thrilled. It was strangely one of the more expensive items on the menu ($12) but was so darn good (and large) that the price seemed OK to me. One problem that I realized after I'd finished eating was that that salad was missing the menu-promised slices of rustic bread, but I suppose I didn't miss them all that much.

Everybody else ordered various sandwiches with various accompanying sides. The house split-pea soup with vegan "ham" was noted as being impressively good for being vegetarian, but there were multiple comments about the "cauliflower bisque" tasting more like a curry lentil soup than cauliflower anything.

Overall I am totally impressed with this place. It has sort of a gritty look and feel that might suggest "biker bar" before "vegetarian restaurant" if you were to pass it by, but it totally delivers in the food department, and the vibe of the place is inclusive and friendly even if you don't necessarily have the "look" that mimics the feel of the place.

Georgetown is a lucky neighborhood to have two distinct vegetarian restaurant! Southend (and beyond) vegetarians and vegans: feast and rejoice!